billionaires don't sit on their capital.
One that did. I don't know of any others that did.
Musk is driven in a way that no Gates, Jobs, Ellison or anybody else of such wealth is. I don't see him with a huge mansion or a yacht, just more projects.
And your ignorance of the fact is probably that you never stop to talk to some of the business owners in your area, and see what they're planning.
You can only find so many stories at the height of public consciousness and Musk just happens to be one of them.
As for buying mansions and yachts, you can't tell me that that's any different than you buying the latest iPhone or car when you already have a perfectly usable phone.
Hell, we could all be getting by with Nokia 3350s if we really want to take that argument there. We don't really need color screens, or internet in our pockets. It's really just a convenience after all, and there are many less fortunate out there in 3rd world countries without phones at all.
Here's where we begin to argue about what poverty means and what 'filthy rich' means. They aren't clearly defined.
I'm for people who earn money, fairly and legally, using it however they see fit. If they want to build space ships, awesome. If they want to buy yachts, awesome.
Even the yachts employ people and produce net effects on the economy that could be argued as positive things. Many engineers and craftsmen are employed by the yacht industry.
I happen to live in one of the yacht capitals of the world, Fort Lauderdale, and there are over 100,000 people employed in that industry here alone.
I'll happily agree to that.
> And your ignorance of the fact is probably that you never stop to talk to some of the business owners in your area, and see what they're planning.
You're incredibly funny.
> As for buying mansions and yachts, you can't tell me that > that's any different than you buying the latest iPhone or > car when you already have a perfectly usable phone.
> Hell, we could all be getting by with Nokia 3350s if we really > want to take that argument there. > We don't really need color screens, or internet in our pockets. > It's really just a convenience after all, and there are many less > fortunate out there in 3rd world countries without phones at all.
I'd have bought another one if they let me but I'm still on the nokia dumb phone that I bought 5 years ago and I probably will be as long as it works. I have some smart phones lying around for development and testing (ubuntu, an android phone and an older iphone), but I have never felt the need to carry one with me when I go out the door.
> Here's where we begin to argue about what poverty means and what 'filthy rich' means. They aren't clearly defined.
We're all filthy rich.
> I'm for people who earn money, fairly and legally, using it however they see fit. If they want to build space ships, awesome. If they want to buy yachts, awesome.
Sure. But the space ships are a tad more impressive to me than the yachts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_controversie...
Note that Gates was still very much involved in Microsoft at that time.
[1]: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/6e27fcba-309d-494e-b8...
It seems that that has been fixed in the meantime.
I'm sorry, I remember a totally different Bill Gates all too well. I'd definitely not list him as 'the greatest living human being'.
Amazing how a person can go from most hated in tech to most revered in the space of few years.
you guys have a lot of neat ideas for other people's money.
